Hours before National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah took oath as the new Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress let it out that it would stay out of the government and provide outside support.
J&K Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra said the party has been demanding statehood for J&K from the Centre and Prime Minister Natendra Modi had also promised the same several times, but to no avail. “We are unhappy, therefore we are not joining the ministry at the moment,” Karra said, adding that the Congress shall continue to fight for statehood.
Given that a J&K government can have only nine ministers, including the CM, Omar was expected to part at best with one Cabinet berth for the Congress, which won just six seats in the Assembly polls.
Sources also said that with pulls and pressures on him from different quarters, plus the need to accommodate various ethnic groups and regions, Omar took the decision to take oath with only five ministers Wednesday, with the decision on others deferred for now.
Speaking to PTI Wednesday morning, Omar said: “The Congress is not out of the cabinet. It’s for them to decide, and we have been in discussions with them… Some vacancies will be kept open as we are in talks with Congress.”
Denying any rift with the Congress, he added: “Everything is well between the NC and Congress, otherwise (Mallikarjun) Kharge ji, Rahul (Gandhi) ji, and senior Congress leaders would not be coming here (for the sweraring-in).”
While Karra cited statehood, sources in the Congress cited multiple reasons for the party not joining the government, J&K’s first in six years and which would have seen the party in power after 10 years here.
A Congress leader said the dismal performance of the party in the Assembly elections, especially in the Hindu-dominant Jammu region, where it was expected to carry the weight of its alliance with the NC, was one of the main factors.
“The party’s performance in the elections was below the mark, which was not expected till even a month ago,” the party leader said. “In such a situation, it would not have been appropriate for us to be a part of the government. Our performance was so poor that it doesn’t seem right to be a part of the Cabinet.”
At the same time, the leader said that the party could not reach a consensus on who the sole minister would be, confirming that the NC had offered them a berth. Given its numbers, the Congress is in no position to bargain for more.
“We have six MLAs, and four of them have been Cabinet ministers in the past. So it was difficult for us to choose one name,” the leader said. “That’s also a reason the party decided to stay outside the government.”
The leader added that the Congress would ideally have wanted to name a Hindu face as its representative in the government, but there is no Hindu in its tally of six.
The four Congress MLAs who have been ministers in the past include PCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra, former PCC chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, another former PCC chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, and Nizam-ud-din Bhat.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
